The Sinc Times

i* * *******m* w* ** **** *********** **** ************

THE £3 INC TIMES
NATIONAL SINCLAIR TIMEX NEWSLETTER

May/June 1965,* vol. 4, no. 3
$2.00/i*sut, 112.00/yiir

Editor: Joseph DtH'Orfanc
122 Meavir St.
Greenwich, Ct. 06830

Supporting the Sinclair and Tieex Personal Coaputers

(203) 531-7677

Writers: Brian Bauer
3327 6 Rd.

Clifton, Co. 81520

John Bloxhai
18 Lea Close
Stratford-upon-Avon
Warwickshire
England CV37 9JS

Narti Kitiyakara
2917 Ursulines Ave.

New Orleans, La. 70119

****** *mm***m*m*t*t**m ***************************************************

EDITORIAL

First of all, let me apologize for another late issue. I held this issue late as long
as I could in hopes of toeing sole to run a review of the AERCO drive system for the 2063.
They are about one week off at the time of this writing, so I should be running them by
the time you read this. The system is operational, except for some cable problems. Bill
Stoeker has a unit running at 21st Century Electronics, and he described the system to
me.

First of all, it's a dual drive system running Qume drives. The drives are double
sided, double density, but the interface has the capability to run anything from 3 1/2"
disks to 6" disks. It comes in a case, and has an RGB port available for a monitor. The
DOB uses the keyboard commands on the 2063, so there is no need for awkward USR calls. The
interface utilizes the 64K cartridge bank, which can be accessed by the user. It will
later be used for an implementation of CP/M 2.2. This means that the 206S will be able to
run three operating systems: its own system, the Spectrum operating system, and CP/M. The
disks, by the way, use a Kaypro format, so a whole new realm of software will become
aval 1able.

Also, for all of you folks running the ZX80/81 or 1000 cut there, let me remind you
that a disk system is still available for them. It’s a dual drive setup, and is very fast
- I’ve seen this one in action running Fro/Tile. It’s really a nice system.

By the way, Timex has turned all of its service facilities over to TS Connections
(3832 Watterson, Cincinnati, Ohio 42227). Repairs usually run $35 to $40. I have had
experience with these people, and am happy with how they handled my problem.

Also, 2066’s are still available. I know of one place who sells them for $173
that includes the 2040 thermal printer. Feel free to call or write to me if you
more info a.Pout this.

ft O anH

d like

Page

THE SING TIMtS 4:3

Last time I mentioned Sinclair’s decision not to market the Spectrum* in the U.S.
Well, it seems that they are selling the GL here. Rumor has it that they are being sold
through American Express just as the -first ZXSO/Br's were. I haven't seen anything tc
substantiate this rumor, though. If anyone out there has heard, let me know.

In this issue we have reviews of the Ramex disk drives, and reviews of three piece
of software: Fighter Pilot, Timegate, and Multi-Draw for the 2068. In hardware, we’ve go
plans for a digital thermometer, and news from England in the JB Corner. (Let's all thank
John for buying a new printer! The JB Corner is much easier to read now:!) That's all for
this time. Next issue will feature a full review of the AERCQ disk system (keep your
fingers crossed!). Until then, keep on ZX'in:

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01 _M

THE SING TIMES 4

Page

the: scjldef^ joint

By Brian Bauer
Build A Digital Thermometer

The latest in the series of projects is a digital thermometer.

A high temperature thermometer was needed for checking
temperatures inside of a large gas fired furnace.. This was
built with a digital panel meter kit plus a few wires (thermo¬
couple wires), some ice water, and a ceramic tube. The ceramic
tube and thermocouple wires are available from Omega Engineering
(203)-322-l666, One Omega Drive,Box 4047» Stamford, Ct 06907.

The digital panel meter kit is available from Circuit Specialists,
PO Box 3047, Scottsdale Ariz. 85257* The main chip however is
widely available from Jameco, Active, etc# At any rate the
basic set up is shown below.

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The ceramic tube serves to keep the thermocouple from oxidizing
or corroding. It probably isn't necessary if the device is used
only occasionally for experimental use. The ice bath provides
a zero reference for the thermocouple. This is the so called
••compensation" part of the circuit, and with this reference the
millivolts from the circuit can be directly compared to NBS
tables to get temperature. This assumes that a matched pair of
thermocouple wires is used for the electrode. (Omega can pro¬
vide matched pairs) So theoretically anyway, the device can be
used to obtain temperature readings without any need for direct
temperature calibration providing* (1) The panel meter is cor¬
rectly calibrated to yield millivolts,(2) The thermocouple wires
are matched by Omega, (3) The reference junction is held at zero
degrees centigrade• The panel meter can be constructed from the
kit or may be put together from spare components if the main
IC is purchased separately. The schematic is shown on the next
page. The pin designations for the leads leading to the LEDs
are in the order* segment,numeral, with the right most digit.
as numeral number 1# For example pin #2 is designated D1 which
means it lights segment D of the right most (least significant)
digit. Clearly the display is not multiplexed! All of the com¬
mons for the LED digits are connected together and lead to the
+5 volt supply line. Pin number 19 controls the 4th .(.most sig¬
nificant digit), which has only two possible states, a one or
a zero. Pin number 20 is designated POL is the line leading to
the minus symbol, POL means polarity. All of this is fairly

Page 4

THE SING TIMES 4

Figure 2.

This shows which
segment is called
by what letter.

clear if the chip data sheet is available. i*The displays are

common anode type . _ , ,. .

To use the full resolution of the display I chose to adjust

the IK pot on pin 35 to read 199.9 when 60 millivolts was applied
to the meter inputs. To convert readings to millivolts the
readings were multiplied by 60/200 f that is 0*3* This was done
because the chromel alumel pair used generates a maximum of
about 57 millivolts before it burns up around 1700 degrees C.

The construction of the thermocouples was a simple matter.
The chromel and alumel alloys were purchased from Omega and
for around $10 each they are available in rolls of 50 ft. ihe
ends of the wires were twisted together and mashed in a vise to
make the junctions. To insulate them ereramic braid was used to
cover one wire and the sensor was shoved down an lo inch ceramic
tube with a closed end. (All this junk is sold by Omega.) The
reference junction was insulated with heat shrink tubing. The

THE 5INC TIMES 4

Fane 5

reference junction was made by putting common insulation around
one of the wires, twisting and mashing the junction, and then
putting it in small diameter heat shrink tubing,. Some silicone
sealant was crammed in the end and allowed to set overnight.

Then the heat shrink tubing was shrunk around it to make a water¬
tight seal.(hopefully).

One key point is that the display is not multiplexed.

This means that it would be fairly easy to interface this
IC to an input port. Or more specifically to three input
ports, or if possible 23 bits. This is a cheap way to get a high
resolution A/D conversion. The ADC0804 circuit described in
a previous article is only 8 bits wide, which means that it
can count up to 128, this chip can count to 1999• The in¬
terpretation of the various patterns presented to the ports
could be done in software.

Another project that I*ve been fooling around with is con¬
verting a TTL monitor to accept composite video. After ampli¬
fying the video composite it was fed to a couple of comparators
to pick off the horizontal sync, vertical sync, and video. Un¬
fortunately the video did not come out very well. The horizontal
and vertical sync were fine but the actual video signal was
smeared out. I think Inadequate frequency response was the pro¬
blem. At any rate if anyone has a simple circuit for doing this
job I would like to see it.

M8M8M88BSS888W^?BB8g

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hardware: review

By Narti Kitiyakara

Review - Ramex disk drive and interface.

Price - $450 + $5 s/h.

Available -from - Ramex International Ltd.

4S945 Van Dyke Road

Utica, Michigan 48087

The Ramex disk system comes with a double sided, QUAD
density disk drive, interface, and system disk. The interface is
made by Abbeydale Designers, Ltd. an English firm. There isn't
much to say about the drive itself. It comes with power supply
case (measuring about 12.5 x 3.5 x 6.5 inches) and has its own
power switch and fuse. The interface is a small black box which
attaches to the edge connector, leaving just enough space for a
jack to the moniter. It also has its own edge connector for a
printer or other device. However, it changes the signals going
out from it, so other interfaces need to be modified
(instructions for modifying the Tasman interface are included,
but for others you are told to contact the interface
manufacturer). Ramex says that the first disk must be double
sided, QUAD density, 1 don't know if this is true or not, as the
Abbeydale instructions say it has to be double density. But
really there is no way to save any money there, because Ramex
has a stranglehold on the system disks (all in QUAD density).

Enough of the boring details of the interface (I'm not a
hardware person), and on to the operating system. SP-DOS (Disk
Operating System, don't ask me where they got the SP) resides in
the high portion of the memory, leaving you with about 31K for
programs, etc. However, since it does reside in memory, you must
be careful about large machine code programs (mostly the games)
which could overwrite it. This, so far, has made it impossible
to copy them onto disk, but I'll beat it yet (I've written to
Ramex for help with this). The DOS allows you to do anything you

could with a normal cassette, only much faster (as an example,

HOT Z, which is listed as 24K, takes about 4 seconds to load).
There are two DOSs, one when you start with the system disk, the
other if you start with any other disk (called Mini DOS), Mini DOS
gives you most of the basic needs of a DOS, SAVE, LOAD, CATalog,
and MERGE. The full DOS gives you all of these, and some other

commands which I'll point out as I get to them. All commands

must be preceeded by 'PRINT #4:' to serve as a flag for the DOS.

Both DOSs have standard cataloging (give you a directory of
what's on the disk), including disk name, capacity, and free
space, although with SP-DOS you can catalog things with a
certain string in them. Both DOSs also allow you to SAVE, or
LOAD anything you would in BASIC, verifying it automatically
(this makes SAVE commands take longer than LOAD commands), you
can ERASE anything from the disk, or MERGE anything
(incidentally, if you MERGE an auto-run program, it is actually

THE SINC TIMES 4s 3

Page 7

merged, but it still auto-runs, so there is no breaking into
programs there). And speaking of auto-run programs, any program
with the name ’AUTO’ will be run whenever you reboot the system
(NEW or turn the computer off and on again). This includes
machine code programs which start with the -first memory location
they were SAVEd -from. Those are all the commands available to
Mi ni DOS'.

Full SP-BOS also has commands to FORMAT disks, rename -files,
copy disks, and use sequential files. The FORMAT command simply
prepares a new disk for writing and reading, by marking off the
sectors and tracks, erasing everything that's on the disk. The
MOVE command can be used to rename files, copies files from one
disk to another, or copies everything which the system allows
(you cannot copy some parts of the system disk). A sequential
file allows you to read from or write to a file of either
strings or numerical variables in a sequential manner. You start
by OF'ENinq the file, with a certain stream number attached, by
using the’command ’ PRINT #4:OPEN #n,"fllename”’. If "filename"
already exists it is QPENed for reading, otherwise it is OPENed
for writing. You can then use ’PRINT #n;’ to send information
out to the disk, or either ’INKEY$ #n’ or ’INPUT #n; to get
information from the disk. You must then tell it you are
with that stream with the command ’CLOSE #n’. You can’t
read and write to the same file. This dosen’t sound like
improvement over the old saving of arrays, but it means you
only 512 bytes, instead of the entire memory required for
array. The 512 bytes pushes the program into higher memory,
be careful if you like machine code in REM statements or
like that. An intresting quirk of the sequential files i

done
both
any
1 ose
the
so
things
that

it insists on giving the keyboard click when reading from the
disk, so if there are long files it’s a good idea to shorten the
length of the click, because it can slow things down (another
unrelated quirk is that if you leave a printer on when saving
something it does a few line feeds, but no characters). The
system disk comes with a program, ’MAIL/BAb , to demonstrate
sequential files, and a file, 'MrtIL/DAT , of many English
companies supporting the Sinclairs.

Some of the old errors have been re-used by SP-DOS, mostly
those dealing with either stream or parameters (like giving a
non-existing drive number will tell you Integer out of Range).
Twelve new errors have been added, dealing with disk related
problems (ie. disk full, file not found). The system manual is
easy to read and understand, but the writers need some lessons
in editing, and margins. It goes through each command step by
step, and gives an appendix of all the errors, and commands. The
Ramex disk system has its pros and cons. On the pro side is the
speed, reliability, and memory size. On the con side
and the fact that it keeps the DOS in memory. If you
the Ramex disk is certainly a good investment, but I
cautious because of the price.

is cost,
need it,
woul d

be

Page 8

THE BIND TIMES 4:3

SOFTWARE REVIEW

By Narti Kityakara

Review - Timegate

a level two 4-D
a sci—Fi arcade
know, it is,
words, tour

Price - $24.95 + s/h

Available from - Knighted Computers

707 Highland St.

Fulton, NY 13069

, , K _ _i V p r f i sments Timegate is

According to the adverti^>- -

_. Cr : _r; Arcade Adventure, well, i u 1

Space-Time Sci-F Arcade , t : don’t

game. Whether it s level two the

however, only in the vague=t -e ^ only , n a very

dimensional. Yes, it does in ''° amount of perspective to

inactive way. Yes, it does give some amo involves

^ndlnrYOorlnem^^e^’v^i^d him distance matters very

llttlS T- ship’s instruments Include^

of*the^surrounding B *pace. in th^game V^start out^n^th^ tar

■future (how far depends ° n ” a , erD in which the enemy base

to fight your way back to the , - t pass through time

in located. To ^ange time^zones^you^must^^ ^ jf there are

gates, however , you d d troy them before you can use

any aliens in the area you must - b l tt le you can completely
the time gate. If you are damaged in battle V y(ju h to

regenerate your ship by ° before you can do this,

wait until all enemies are tj 0 ° covering weapons, shields,
There are six damage indi ..’ll l didn^t think were very

engines, and another three that I dian

important.

■ lifhin two dimensions the
Timegate can be a f,^ng evasive actions until ready to
aliens are good fighters, taki g satisfying to destroy

fire at you. For ju.t rela xingit can^be^ Pilot. There

scores of aliens a ^ te ^ ® improved, I would have liked <*

are a few things which coc makes, and while having the

way to turn of the sounds ovel intakes to long to find any
instructions on cassette is novel,
one point of the instructions.

THE SING TIMES 4

Page- 9

SOFTWARE REVIEW

By Narti Kityakara

Review - Fighter Pilot
Price - $21.95 + s/h

Available -from - Knighted Computers

707 Highland St.

Fulton, NY 13069

Fighter Pilot is a simulation of the F-15 Eagle fighter. It
offers both simple flights, and dog fighting, with four skill
levels for each simulation. The F-15 is an extremely
maneuverable aircraft, with a 65,000 ft. ceiling, and a maximum
speed of about 1,440 knots, which I must say is very fun to fly
in a dog fight, although it is easy to over react with the
joystic k.

The instruments include an artificial horizon (with roll,
and pitch), which I found much preferable to the Rate of Climb
indicator of the F'si on simulation, compass or radar (for flying
or fighting respectively), and all the other instrument found on
the Psion plane. Unlike the Psion simulation your instruments
are shown at all times so that you can safely fly with the map

on. Also unlike Psion, if you leave one side of the map, you

come back on the other side, instead of just flying on to run

out of fuel. The plane can be controled from the keyboard alone,

but it is extremely difficult to dog fight like that, or with
the joystick and keyboard. The TS-2068 version (this is another
converted Spectrum program) has different functions for the two
joystick ports, the right is used for fighting, the left for
landing and take-off.

There are two modes for non-combat flying: landing

practice, which puts you in a good starting position 6 miles
from the end of a runway; and flying training, in which you are
in position for take-off and can just fly around to your heart’s
content. Both of the non—combat modes are rather dull, more
interesting however are air-to-air combat, and combat practice
(where the other planes don’t shoot back). The other aircraft
fight very well, always attempting to get in position behind
you, and often preforming complex maneuvers, such as barrel
rolls and loops (although I’ve yet to see one Immelmann, half a
loop and half a roll to turn around quickly). All modes have one
of four skill levels, and optionally: crosswinds, and fog (which
makes you lose sight of the horizon, and is very difficult to
fly in).

Fighter F'ilot is a fast paced, and exciting game, well
worth the $22 if you like either dog fighting, or just flying
around.

Page 10

THE SING TIME

SOFTWARE REVIEW

By Joseph Dell’Grfano

Review - Multi-Draw 206S
Price - $24.95

Available -from - 21st Century Electronics
6813 Polk St.

Guttenberg, N.8. 07093

Multi-Draw is a Tar cry -from MacPaint. However, it does of Ter some handy
graphics support for the 2068. All functions are available through the joystick
( (except string entry). This is both a help and a hinderance. Anybody who’s had
the chance to work with Atari joysticks knows that they’re not the best method
of data entry. However, they do make it easier to access the various functions
( of the program - no need to memorize a lot of coded commands. These are just
remarks about the hardware, though. Now onto some remarks about the software
itself»

(

At the bottom of the screen is a cursor and a row of boxes which the cursor
moves in. Below the boxes are various graphic characters. Also, at the lower
left hand corner is the name of the command which is presently being accessed.
All of these commands and characters are accessed with the joystick. The main
display contains the drawing area, along with an 6x8 cursor, also joystick
controlled. By pressing the fire button of the joystick, the selected graphic
character is drawn on the screen. In this manner a crude drawing can be made.

The most powerful aspect of this program, however, is its ability to edit
the drawing pixel by pixel. An area of the screen is blown up, and each
individual pixel can be turned on or off. Also, by a similar process, the
selectable graphic characters can be editted. This gives you great flexibility
in designing graphics.

The program also supports color. You can set the color of what you’re
drawing, or paint over it later. This also allows for great flexibility. A
hardcopy can be obtained with the 2040 printer, or an Epson compatible. (More on
< this later.)

Well, the first problem here is getting good results. It is a very tedious
( process. For example, the simple picture reproduced took me about two hour

to produce. Like I said, it’s not MacPaint.

( The second problem which I have discovered is in its screen save routine.

The picture which was saved to tape consistently had the same mistake in it,
which leads me to believe that there is a bug somewhere. Also, the program does
£ not support my Gemini printer - funny, I thought that it was just about as

’Epson compatable’ as you can get without an Epson! Unfortunately, I have not
had a chance to try it out on an Epson. It would be interesting to see if it
does indeed work.

Anyway, for the price of $24.95, it is a pretty good deal. I would’ve like
$ to have seen an option for keyboard entry, though, instead of relying solely on
the joysticks. Also, the program makes no attempt to support any of the 2068’s
advanced graphic capabilities, although the program also includes a routine to
f- copy a 64 column screen to the 2040. All in all, it is a good program - suffice
it to say that I have not seen better.

THE SINC TIMES 4

Page 11

JB CORNER JB CORNER JB CORNER JB

op : ‘tr , c~br -urn LJp ;i ci3."t .*0 iz*y

CORKER JR

NEWS

A couple of little snippets to start with=-

1) I no longer have a Sinclair Spectrum (?)

2) Sinclair Research have stopped making the Spectrum (!)

Before you go three no trumps in coronories I had better
explain. Last Autumn (should I say Fall?) Uncle Clive introduced
the Sinclair Spectrum Plus at £179. It sported a cut down QL
style keyboard with more keys than the standard Spectrum but
interna1ly it was the same as the Speccy we al1 know and love.
After L-tit i s t mas there came a noticeable slowing of the home
computer market so in an effort to stay ahead Clive cut the
price of the Plus to £129 and discontinued the old rubber key
model. Since then he has made the Plus keyboard available on its
own and, like many others, I have "upgraded" my machine to a
Spectrum Plus by buying the keyboard and transplanting the
circuit board of rny dear old Speccy. At £20 the keyboard is very
good value and must, I think, have given the other add on
keyboard manufacturers a nightmare as they were all retailing at
about £50. The "feel" is quite good too and the separate
punctuation and function keys are real handy. I have also

recently taken the plunge and invested in a Microdrive now that
the cartridges are cheaper and the reliabi1ity seems to be good.
So far I am pleased with the speed and ease of use - it sure is
a pain when I have to use the old cassette machine to load one
of my old programs. Do any members in the U.S'. have Microdrives
yet? If so, how are yu getting on? Any hints or tips??

Generally the market is jittery over here with a number of
well known manufacturers going bust and the much publicised

arrival of Jack Trarnai 1' s new Atari machines giving everyone the

willies. Even the unstoppable Sir Clive has had to put a

cautious brake on Spectrum* production even though the machine
is selling as well as ever.

"YOU'VE GOTTA TRY THIS" DEPARTMENT

Promise me that you wi11 try this little routine:

I don t know if you've ever heard of recursion but it's
something I've never seen a genuine need for. Recursion is where
c* subroutine repeatedly calls itself, which might sound a little
complicated but it can - so I've heard - produce short and
elegant solutions to programming problems. Just remember then
whenever a program comes across the word GOSUB it stores away
the address of the next instruction on a special memory stack.

Page 12

THE SINC TIMES 4s 3

and whenever it meets the word RETURN it pops the top one off
the stack and jumps to that address. Anyway, to get the idea,
take a look at this little routine before you try it. The
routine actually does something useful, and it would normally be
fairly difficult to do it in BASIC. It is a FILL routine, that
is it will ink in all the pixels inside an outline. The fill
routine occupies only one line - line 100 - all right then, two
lines if you count the RETURN instruction at line 110. The other
lines simply draw some tricky shapes for the routine to fill.
The variables x and y are set up to point to any pixel inside
the outline then the routine is called and away it goes. The
routine repeatedly calls itself as pixels are checked or inked
in, even a small outline will cause hundreds of return addresses
to be pushed onto the gosub stack, but as the computer is doing
all the counting who cares? All this activity is fairly slow in
BASIC but is very interesting to watch, notice how the line
retraces its steps to check any pixels that may have been
missed. The routine can be incorporated anywhere in your own
programs of course but remember that if you want to fill an area
out to the edge of the screen you must first draw a line around
the edge.

10 REr-i Bft s IC f i i. i.

£0 PLOT 50,50: DRflUl 5 0.30 ,PI:

DRAW £0,0 : DRRU 0 . -4-S : DRflUl —70 .
0 : D R R U 0.1 S

3 0 LET X =103 : LET y=75: GO SUB

100

4-0 PLOT 110,100: DRRU 0.50: DR

RU 4.0,0 : DRRU 0.-50: DRRU -4-0.0 .

CIRCLE 130,130'. 16

5 0 LET X =115 : LET U =10 5 : GO SU

B 100: STOP

10 0 IF N OT P O I NT ( X . M :■ THE N P L O

T X , y : LET y = u + 1 : GO SUB 100 : LE

T y =y —£ : GO SUB 100: LET M = *-l + 1 :

LET x = X +1 : GO SUB 100: LET X=X-£
GO SUB 100: LET X = X +1
110 RETURN

QL support takes a
quantum leap at last

A year after its launch the QL is
just beginning to look as if it’s
getting there—and if it doesn’t
it won’t be through lack of effort
on the part of Sinclair Research.
Last week saw Sir Clive and
staff playing host to a number of
journalists and, more impor¬
tant, a number of third party
manufacturers who are produc¬
ing software and add-ons for the
machine.

The QL hasn’t had the best of
years, partly because of the
unfamiliarity of its 68008 chip
and partly because Microdrive
cartridges have been expen¬
sive. But 68000 programming
can be learned, and cartridges
are now a more realistic price,
so Sir Clive feels the time is ripe
for a quantum leap in third
party support.

At the end of QLyear zero, the
machine seems to have gravi¬
tated towards a sort of low-key,
business machine status. It
hasn’t achieved anything like

QMOD, which i& a 75 / 1200 or
1200/1200 modem. The assem¬
bled kit will put you in touch
with Telecom Gold and Prestel,
and, if you really have nothing
better to do, Micronet 800.

As far as software is con¬
cerned, the poor old QL is
currently being bombarded
with languages, monitors and
assemblers. Computer One has
Pascal, Forth, a monitor and an
assembler, Micro APL has
APL, while Metacomco has an
assembler, BCPL and Lisp.
GST took the opportunity to
announce a C compiler, avail¬
able towards the end of this
month.

As for the rest, CP Software
had implemented Bridge Play¬
er 2 on the QL, while Eidersoft
had QL Art, QL Archiver an a
machine code screen dump
routine.

On the hardware side Eider-
soft also had a version of the
Quickshot joystick with a QL
plug on the end, a cheap (£9.50)
printer lead, and QL to Atari
joystick converters.

The QL’s new ROM, the JS

QL and disk — first in a line of matching accessories.

the third party support the
Spectrum had after its first
year, but in hardware terms at
least there’s enough around for
it to form the centrepiece of a
credible business system.

There are disk drives avail¬
able from Medic Datasytems,
Micro Peripherals, Quest CST,
and Sinclair itself intends to
release a VkMb RAM and disk
later this year.

Disk drives now apparently
being ten a penny, OEL’s
QCOM system was the star of
the show. QCOM is a three part
communications system, con¬
sisting of QCGN, a communica¬
tions interface switchable from
75-9600 baud, QCALL, an auto
answer auto dial module, and

version, is one of a series of
Sinclair. A number of new
commands are included, but
Sinclair’s intention in laun¬
ching JS at this point is to
improve Microdrive handling.
The new ROM itself is totally
compatible with previous ver¬
sions, but the new commands
are partly experimental, and
may not be documented until
later versions of the ROM are
produced. PCN will carry full
details of them in the next few
weeks.

If you’re buying a QL in the
next few weeks you should
make sure you’ve got the JS
version (type PRINT VER$)
and that it includes version 2 of
the Psion applications.

And in the beginning
there was the QL

Last week’s all-day seminar
ended with what was billed as
’an informal press briefing’ by
Sir Clive himself. In the event,
it was more of a religious rally,
at least on the Sinclair side of
the table — Sir Clive preaching
the QL gospel.

He foresees a rosy future for
his latest brainchild. The
brightest spot on the horizon is
Strathclyde University’s com¬
mitment to take 7,000 QL
systems — one on the desk of
every student, and beyond that

Sinclair’s intention to domin¬
ate the university and college
computing field.

In addition, OEL’s com¬
munications package could
take the QL into the
heavyweight business sphere.

To date, there are 50,000 QL
users in Britain but Sinclair is
talking of boosting that figure
by 200,000 this year. Sir Clive
wouldn’t be drawn on his hopes
for the US market other than to
say that managing director
Nigel Searle will return to
America to head the mail order
launch of the machine there.

Sir Clive was boisterous in

dealing with questions on the
expected competition in the
low-cost, 16-bit micro arena
from Commodore’s Amiga and
the ST range from Jack Tra-
miel’s Atari.

'We’re not impressed by the
competition,’ he said. 'I don’t
belive that Tramiel is in a
position to compete. Realisti¬
cally, hefs at least a year behind
us.’

# Expert Systems Internation¬
al will add another string to the
QL’s bow by implementing an
interpreter for its Prolog-1 on
the QL.

Prolog is an artificial intelli¬
gence language and its pre¬
sence on the QL will make the
machine appeal to a completely
different type of user. The QL
version of Prolog-1 will cost less
than £100, Expert Systems
says.

# Sinclair has now unveiled

new versions of its bundled
software. Version 2.0 of
Xchange (as Quill, Abacus,
Easel and Archive are know'n
collectively) will be supplied
with QLs from March 4. Ex¬
isting QL owners, provided
they are paid-up members of
QLUB (QL Users Bureau), may
claim free upgrades from Sinc¬
lair.

The main criticisms of the
original suite were that it was
very slow to load into memory,
spent far too long loading over¬
lays and left little room for data.

Apparently, compression
techniques and 'conversion to
machine code’ make version 2.0
of Xchange load twice as, fast,
run 20-30 per cent faster,
occupy less RAM, and it will no
longer be held up by overlays.
The revised version of Xchange
also supports floppy and hard
disks.

What the Sinclair future holds, by Sir Clive

More details have emerged of Sinclair’s next major computer
projects — the silicon disk drive and the Spectrum portable.

) The wafer disk was dubbed by Sir Clive ’the most exciting
development in computing this year.’ He revealed that it will be
launched later this year for the QL offering a VzMb of storage for
around £300.

; The unit contains a single, large wafer of silicon and combines
the functions ofRAM memory and a disk drive. A battery ensures
that data is retained when the QL is switched off, or when the
drive is disconnected from the machine: It features a power
indicator to warn of a low battery charge, and batteries can be
changed while the unit is plugged into the QL. As a failsafe, data
can be backed up on to Microdrives. :

The silicondisk also features in Sinclair’s plans for the portable
Spectrum, probably in a year’s time. Its specification begins to
bear out our prediction (issue 42) that the Spectrum would
become the Apple II of its time.

: The only firm details so far are that it wi II be ZSO-hased and will
be compatible with Spectrum software. Sir Clive told Wednes¬
day’s gathering that a change of interface would allow th e silicon
disk to be used as main storage on the portable ; a hough
Microdrives are still an option.

The toughest part of the design is likely to be the display. Sir
Clive has ruled out the use of liquid crystal technology, and is
looking to further developments on his flat-screen TV ^ ;